Tag: Agriculture

Maize crops falling victim to fall armyworm in Bihar

Source: downtoearth.org.in

Maize crops are falling prey to the deadly Fall Armyworm (FAW) in Bihar, India’s third-largest corn producer.

There are officials reports of FAW attacks on maize crops from the districts of Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Begusarai, Bhagalpur, Saran and Sheohar, an official of the state agriculture department said. “But unconfirmed reports also suggest presence of FAW in other maize-growing districts of north Bihar,” he added.

FAW was first detected by entomologists C M Kalleshwara Swamy and Sharanabasappa in maize fields at the University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shimoga, in Karnataka last year. It is an invasive and polyphagous (feeding on many foods) pest. It can attack cereals and forage grasses.

The deadly pest has since spread across many states in the country.

Last year, FAW was detected at a few places in Bihar, but maize crops were not infected. This year though, things are different.

Thousands of maize-growing farmers in Muzaffarpur and neighbouring districts are worried about the latest attacks of FAW.

“We have never faced anything like it in the past,” Narender Yadav, a marginal maize-growing farmer from Guaridih village in Muzaffarpur’s Gaighat block, said.

“This is something new and harmful. I don’t know how to protect my crops,” Yadav, who lost his crop to FAW last week, said.

“We have information that FAW has damaged maize crops on nearly 60 hectares (ha) so far in two panchayats of Gaighat,” Muzaffarpur District Agriculture Officer Krishna Kumar Verma, said.

There were also reports of FAW damaging maize crops in some villages under the Bochaha and Minapur block. “I have directed agriculture officers in these blocks to collect information,” Verma said.

According to him, a team of experts including agriculture scientists from Patna had visited Gaighat last week after the pest attack to study the worm and suggest measures to tackle it.

“Soon after the presence of FAW was reported, we informed the state agriculture director and issued an advisory on how to manage the pest,” RN Singh, associate director of Bihar Agriculture University at Sabour in Bhagalpur district, said.

“We have already taken measures and advised farmers to use insecticides on their maize crops,” Adesh Titarmare, state agriculture director, said.

However, there is no official confirmation of FAW presence in the Kosi-Seemanchal region of north-eastern Bihar, which accounts for nearly 65 per cent of its total maize production. The districts included in the region are Araria, Madhepura, Saharsa, Supaul, Purnea, Kishanganj and Katihar.

According to official numbers, Bihar has a high maize productivity of 3,904 kg/ha, which is more than the national average of 2,889 kg/ha. Bihar has witnessed a visible growth in maize production in the past decade.

The state produced 1.36 million tonnes of the crop in 2005-06. This increased to 3.85 million tonnes in 2016-17, as the high-yielding maize of Rabi season has been replacing winter wheat and paddy in the state.

Farmers in Bihar Fear Another Drought

Source: newsclick.in

Patna: Jogendar Mandal and his co-villager Kamlesh Yadav are worried over poor monsoon even as of the first week of July. Both are marginal farmer of Banka district, they fear another drought this year with state recorded 41 percent less than the normal rainfalls in June and 43 percent less than normal rainfall in July so far ,as per the rainfall report of Indian Meteorological Department.

Mandal and Yadav are two of thousands of farmers of Banka, one of the districts facing drought-like conditions — Jamui, Bhagalpur, Munger and Lakhisarai being among the other affected districts.

“We have no idea or clue to predict weather, but dry spell so far during the time of heavy rains indicate that something is bad in-store for us. Rain gods are giving us sleepless nights this time like last year. It appears we may face another drought,” said Mandal, in his early 40s, sitting on a locally made bamboo cot. He told Newsclick that thanks to mobile phones, he has been able to get connected to outside his village.

Poor monsoon in Bihar, as of July 4, has affected paddy sowing — triggered fears of another drought among millions of the state’s farmers, agriculture scientists and officials.

Even chief minister Nitish Kumar recently said he feared another spell of drought in Bihar. Taking the issue of dry spell and water crisis seriously in Bihar, the state government and state legislature have decided to organise a special debate on July 13 in the central hall of the state Assembly here to discuss the issue and measures to tackle the challenge by taking feedback from legislators.

With water problems creating havoc among people, on the directive of chief minister Nitish Kumar a special debate would be held. All legislators including ruling parties and opposition will attend and will present ground reality of water problems in their respective constituencies before the government.

“Scanty monsoon rains in Bihar have badly affected paddy sowing. Till date, 61.73% paddy seedling has been reported. But situation is very bad in Bhagalpur and Munger commissionary as only 5% paddy seedling has been reported,” said an agriculture officer.

The state government has targetted paddy cultivation on 33 lakh hectares this year. But till date, paddy seedlings have been reported on about 3.30 lakh hectares.

“What is alarming is that paddy saplings transplantation delayed, so far transplantation is reported in only 93,000 hectares, it is 2.83% of the targetted. Besides, no sapling transplantation started in 27 of 38 districts,” another official told Newsclick here.

“Farmers are also getting restless about transplanting paddy seedlings in view of the lack of water,” said Mandal. He said that paddy seedlings were badly hit in over two dozen districts. All these districts are facing drought-like situation, he said. The state government would provide diesel to farmers at subsidised rates under a contingency plan to cope with the drought-like situation, he added.

According to government’s own data, nearly two-thirds of Bihar’s population of 11 crore are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.

Not only that, nearly two-thirds of all agricultural activity in the state is dependent on the rains. Most of them are small and marginal farmers.

For most of the state’s population, therefore, a good monsoon is often the difference between life and death.

Agriculture is the backbone of Bihar’s economy, employing 81% of the workforce and generating nearly 42% of the state’s domestic product, according to the state government’s figures. About 76% of Bihar’s population is dependent on agriculture for livelihood.

Reports reaching Patna said unlike the past, there is no water for irrigation in the canals. A large part of central Bihar is irrigated by water from the Sone river, brought through canals.

A few farmers have managed to save paddy seeds sown last month by pumping ground water and others are trying to do the same now.

Brick kilns ruin 6,000 acres of land in Bihar every year: Study

Source: hindustantimes.com

Red brick kilns in Bihar destroy about 6,000 acres of land every year, according to the results of a study released recently. This is a big and alarming number for a state whose economy is largely based on agriculture, and where environment management has become of paramount importance in the face of a large-scale water crisis.

The study was conducted by Development Alternatives (DA), a research institution working for sustainable development. Quoting 2017 data from the mines and geology department, DA said that there were 6,364 registered brick kiln units in Bihar that produced 19,000 million red bricks and consumed around 53 million tonnes of soil. The total geographical area of the state is 94,163 square km.

In 2018, as per data from the mines and geology department, the number of brick kiln units was 6,291 (73 less than in 2017). Of all the districts, Gaya has the highest number of brick kiln units in Bihar. The district, having a geographical area of 4,976 sq. km and facing an acute water crisis, had 442 brick kiln units in 2018. The second highest number of 325 units was in Saran district, followed by 310 in Patna.

Vice-president, DA, Soumen Maity, said, “When the top soil of a [plot of] land is cut, the humus is lost, making it barren or [resulting in] massive loss of its fertility. The land around the brick kiln also becomes barren because of the enormous heat generated from the furnace of the unit. Even the water table of the area starts falling due to evaporation of the underlying water.”

Maity said that the figures of the mines and geology department only showed the brick kilns that paid royalty, but there were many that were unregistered and illegally run. He added that a lot of water — an estimated 25% of the water available in an area — was used up in the making of red brick.

The study has been done by DA in association with Bihar State Pollution Control Board. Commenting on this situation, BSPCB chairman Ashok Kumar Ghosh said, “The red brick kilns are destroying the agricultural land and depleting the groundwater also. Many have switched to clean technology, which is not the solution to save the agricultural land. The Centre is now stressing on the manufacture of fly ash bricks, using fly ash generated from thermal power units. We have suggested that brick kilns should be given some time to switch to fly ash units, so that they recover the cost they put into switching to green technology.”

Brick kilns are the fourth largest contributors to the wealth earned by the mines and geology department. In 2018-19, the department collected Rs 4,144.11 lakh from the brick kilns.

The DA study said that in 2017, Bihar lost 6,176 acres of agriculture land owing to brick kiln activity. To arrive at this conclusion, the study assumed that 1 metre of topsoil was cut from agriculture fields for making bricks. However, the mines and geology department grants permission to cut top soil up to 3 metres or slightly more than 10 feet. “There are reports that rules are hardly followed when cutting the soil. In many districts, soil has been cut beyond 10 feet,” said Maity.

In 2018, the mines and geology department had issued a notice stating that soil was a “minor mineral” and under the Bihar Minor Mining Act 2017 (Rule 28-2), it was necessary for both sellers and buyers to take permission by registering themselves with the mining and geology department. “However, only one or two people are taking permission before the sale of soil to brick kiln owners in Gaya,” said Rajkishore Sharan, district mining officer, Gaya, pointing to the extent of illegality.

Water conservationist Rajendra Singh, popularly known as the ‘Waterman of India’, said that the brick kilns sliced the top soil, which had the capacity to store water and recharge the aquifers. “Their [large] numbers will definitely affect the water table of the particular area where they are operational,” said Singh.

West Singhbhum farmers wary of Jharkhand government’s agriculture incentive scheme

Source: hindustantimes.com

Tribal farmers of Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district want to stay out of the state government’s flagship scheme Mukhya Mantri Krishi Ashirvad Yojana (MMKAY), fearing that their land would be acquired if they share land details to avail the monetary support under the state government scheme.

Confusion reigned all around the poor tribal population in the hinterlands after 2017, when the state’s BJP-led Raghubar Das government attempted to amend the British-era tenancy laws – Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT) and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act (SPT), as well as the Land Acquisition Act, 2013. Though the government could not amend the CNT and SPT Acts, it successfully brought changes in the Land Acquisition Act to waive off the social impact assessment (SIA) clause for land acquisition, which enables the government to acquire land for specific purposes such as building of schools, colleges or hospitals.

The opposition parties, however, had fought tooth and nail to prevent the government from amending the laws in 2017. It charged the government of acting on behalf of corporate interests to acquire tribal land. A message, thus, was spread among tribal population that the government wanted to alienate them from their land.

The misinformation became so deep-rooted that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to assure tribal voters in West Singhbhum during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaigns that no one would acquire their land.

Eyeing the assembly elections scheduled to be held in November-December this year, the BJP dispensation in the state has fixed a deadline for the state bureaucracy to disburse agriculture incentives announced by the government for fiscal 2019-20.

The state government, in line with the centre’s Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PMKSNY), had also announced that small and marginal landholders having landholdings up to five acres, will get an annual incentive of Rs 5,000 per acre for Kharif crop production.

But residents of many tribal villages under Manjhari, Gudri, Sonua, Bandhgaon, Manoharpur, Noamundi, Hatgamharia, Jhinkpani and other blocks in West Singhbhum district expressed their concern and reluctance to avail the monetary benefits under the scheme. They believe that government would take over their land if they share land details to avail the financial benefits under MMKAY.

Some residents of Jhangiburu villager in Manjhari block had even sent a letter to the deputy commissioner (DC) last week to raise their concerns.

Ram Soren, a Kisan Mitra who is supposed to collect villagers’ application in Noamundi Basti under Noamundi block said, “Out of around 50 farmers in his village, only 25 have applied for the monetary benefits.”

“Villagers are saying that the government did not give them benefits under the Indira Aawas Yojana and other schemes as promised earlier. Now it is luring the tribal people with MMKAY to acquire their plots in the name of financial support,” Soren said.

West Singhbhum deputy commissioner (DC) Arava Rajkamal, however, on June 10 had issued letters to 217 mukhiyas (village head), asking them to convince people not to get swayed by rumours. He had also sent a team of district administration to Jhangiburu village to sensitise the villagers.

On Thursday, the DC along with other officials, visited Asura village in Jhinkpani block to convince people to apply and avail the financial assistance that would help them in purchasing seeds, pesticides and other goods for better agricultural production.

“Farmers are free to use the said money for agricultural purposes and the administration is not going to ask for fund utility proof,” DC Rajkamal said.

He informed that out of 1.5 lakh beneficiary farmers in the district, only 38,819 farmers have so far applied for the scheme. As many as 12,800 farmers had received the first instalment of Rs 2000 out of Rs 6,000 annual benefit under PMKSNY. 35,000 more farmers have now applied.

“It is a rumour that farmers’ lands would be acquired or transferred if they furnish land details in Form C. Through the forms, we are just taking their approval for depositing respective amount directly to their bank accounts,” Rajkamal said.

“A group of people with antidevelopment mindset have been spreading rumors. Strict legal action would be taken against those involved.”


Jharkhand HC Stays Proceeding Against Union Agriculture Minister

Source: livelaw.in

In a relief to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, the Jharkhand High Court (HC) has granted a stay in proceeding against him in lower court in a case related to alleged insult and provocation knowing that it would cause break of public peace.

Justice AK Gupta granted the stay on the ground that the complainant failed to appear before HC after a notice was issued to him in 2017 while he was trying to proceed in lower court, said Tomar’s lawyer Saumitra Baroi. The HC had issued notice to the complainant while granting stay in proceeding in the case in lower court.

It may be noted here that the case was lodged by Congress worker MK Azad at Dhanbad civil court after Tomar allegedly said that a few people compare Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi adding that the hair a moustache and that of a tail cannot be compared. The statement was allegedly made by Tomar while addressing a public rally in 2016.

Meanwhile, as per guidelines issued by Supreme Court, the lower court recently re-opened proceeding against Tomar after lapse of six months of stay. It issued a bailable warrant and directed Tomar to appear before the court in July. Tomar, however, moved the HC again to secure the stay. The hearing in the case would be in September.